Generally speaking, the announcement of Grammy-winning pop powerhouse Pink as the host of the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday was met with two immediate reactions: a) will she fly, and b), why her?
While Pink was a “theater kid” growing up (more on that shortly), the second question was actually her initial reaction as well, as she told Variety at a press event on Tuesday.
When the call came, “I was like, ‘Why me? I’ve never been on Broadway,’ which is probably the collective eye roll that I felt,” she recalled with a laugh. “But they said, ‘Because we want more viewership.’ And I was like, ‘Great! I have a purpose! I’m your guy!’ So here we are — it’s a beautiful group of people to celebrate.”
As for the first question — regarding what we can expect to see when she hosts the show from New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Sunday — she did not give specifics, but told another interviewer cagily, “Everyone always expects me to fly, so I literally walk into every building like, ‘Where can I hang from? What’s strong enough?’ They were like, ‘Calm down, it’s Radio City.’ So we’ll see — but I’m doing some things!”
She did allow that there will be “many, many, many costume changes, as many as I can possibly do. There will be stunts — and not just for me. I’m hoping to cajole another performer into taking a chance with a stunt, so we’ll see! And Amber Ruffin, who wrote ‘Bigfoot,’ is helping me write my whole Tonys [script].”
